TOPIC 29. DISCOURSE ANALYSIS & ARTICULATION. COHESION, COHERENCE, ANAPHORA & CATAPHORA. CONNECTORS & DEIXIS.

INTRODUCTION: I will start by mentioning the justification of this topic. According to our current legislation based on LOMLOE TEXT & CONTEXT
from 2020, the teaching of a foreign language must be based on the teaching through plurilingualism, interculturality and It is also important to distinguish btw Text & Context inside the
communication, for that reason, it is essential to achieve the proper communicative process through the teaching of discourse. concept of discourse analysis.
This topic is very useful to teach a L2 as texts are one of the richest tools to understand a L2. Once the justification is done, we TEXT: is any object that can be read, whether this object is a work
are ready to start… of literature, street sign or a style of clothing. It’s a coherent set of
1. DISCOURSE ANALYSIS signs that transmit informative message. Though many people
There is no agreement among linguists as to the use of the term discourse in that some use it in reference to texts, while others think of text as referring only to written words, writing is not what
claim it denotes speech. Discourse analysis is a research method for studying written or spoken language in relation to its social confers textuality. Text is utterance oral or written. A text refers to a
context. It aims to understand how language is used in real life situations. When you do discourse analysis, you might focus on: specific body of words that constitute a particular piece of writing. A
- The purposes and effects of different types of language. text can be very short, such as a sonnet, but is considered a text
- Cultural rules and conventions in communication. because it is complete in and of itself.
- How values, beliefs and assumptions are communicated. CONTEXT: Every text, however, has a context, which is the culture,
- How language use relates to its social, political and historical context. setting, and situation in which it is produced. No text is created
Discourse analysis is a common qualitative research method in many humanities and social science disciplines, including uninfluenced by the world around it. It’s the setting of a word or
linguistics, sociology, anthropology, psychology and cultural studies. It looks at language in relation to the text where they belong event, the situation in which the communicative event takes place.
to rather than in isolated sentences. Language in use, for communication- is called discourse; and the search for what gives A world filled with people producing utterances: people who have
discourse coherence is discourse analysis. It is important to notice that the distinction between these two kinds of language (the social cultural & personal identities, knowledge, beliefs & wants to
artificially constructed and the communicating) is often more a question of the way we use or think about a particular stretch of interact with one another. The first syllable of context, ‘con’ is a
language, than the way it is in itself. Latin prefix that means ‘with’ or ‘accompanying’. Thus, context is
DISCOURSE: the term comes into force when we deal with paragraphs & texts. At this level, language doesn’t occur in solitary the information or understanding that is not written/spoken/seen
words or sentences (simple, complex & compound) in grammatical terms, but in communicative contexts in other words, we do but is necessary to fully understand that which is
not deal with single speech acts, expressed by single sentences, but with larger sequences of sentences of discourse & conversation. written/spoken/seen.
As Discourse analysis is a research method for studying spoken language (apart from written) I consider important to speak about Text is the actual content of a work, while context is the historical,
the Speech Act Theory. social, biographical, or artistic background of the work itself. An
AUSTIN & SEARLE THEORY OF SPEECH ACTS: Speech act theory is a subfield of pragmatics that studies how words are used example of this would be that The Great Gatsby is a text, while the
not only to present information but also to carry out actions. The SAT considers the language a sort of action rather than a medium Roaring Twenties, which provides the setting of the novel, is an
to convey & to express. Austin introduced this theory in 1875 in his well-known book How to Do Things with Words. Later, important context when it comes to understanding the motivations of
Searle developed it in higher dimensions. People use the language not only to assert things but also to do things. The theory the characters and how the time period in which they lived shaped
emphasizes that the utterances have a different meaning to its users & listeners. We distinguished btw: their decisions and actions.
- constative utterances, which are statements of facts, e.g.: The teacher asked Oliva whether she had stolen the candy. Olivia There are Seven criteria which have to be fulfilled to qualify either a
replies: ‘mmmm’ Olivia’s utterance describes the event in pact of answering her teacher whether the situation was true or false. written or a spoken text as a discourse have been suggested by
- performative utterances, was applied to those utterances which are used to perform an act instead of describing it. this type of Beaugrande & Dressler.
utterances does not describe, constate or report anything. E.g.: ‘I will’ David & Marta have been dating for the past 4 years. One INTENTIONALITY when a text is cohesive & coherent it has a
evening David took Marta to the + expensive restaurant in town, and he ordered the + expensive wine. Then, he moved closer to her particular intention to fulfil. Intentionality is related to relevance.
& asked her: ‘Will you marry me? Marta burst into tears & replied ‘I will’. This I will expresses her feelings, attitudes & emotional It’sabout the effects of an author on the text & their impact on the
towards the context. These utterances have its specific meaning only in relation to a specific context. receiver. You tell you have a cat in a conversation about WWI.
Further, Austin divides his linguistic act into 3 different categories: ACCEPTABILITY the text must be acceptable by the audience. You
• Locutionary acts, the act of saying something. It has meaning & it creates an understandable utterly to convey or express. cannot speak about football in church. Acceptability doesn’t
Hand me some money. necessary implies that the readers believe the contents of the text.
• Illocutionary acts, the intention of the speaker with certain tones of attitudes, feelings & emotions, somebody is asking for The receiver just must be able to understand what kind of text the
money. sender intended to send & what was his intention by sending it.
• Perlocutionary acts, the consequential effect of the utterances. The effects may be in the form of thoughts, imaginations, feelings INFORMATIVITY, a text should have always new information, but
or emotions. Somebody will have more money. this information can neither be too easy because the audience gets
There are only five illocutionary points that speakers can achieve on propositions in an utterance, namely: bord nor too difficult because they can lose interest.
Representatives, Speakers represent how things are in the world. The speaker makes the words fit the world. It’s raining. SITUATIONALITY, the situation in which the text has been
commissive, the speaker makes the worlds fit their words. The speakers commit themselves to a future act. Promising, vowing, occurred. It is essential for the evaluation of the situationally of the
threating. I will always love you. text to know where it happened & what its function was in the
Directive, speakers direct the hearer to a future plan which make the world’s fit the speaker’s words. Commanding, ordering, situation. It’s the location of a text in a discrete sociocultural context
requesting, suggesting. Clean it up! in a real time & place.
Expressive, through which the speakers express their feelings by making their words fit their internal psychological world. INTERTEXTUALITY, refers to the relationship between a certain
Thanking, apologizing, congratulating. This wine is awful. text & other types of texts which share characteristics with it. The
Rogatives, the hearer rather than the speaker will make the words fit the world. Asking, questioning. Can I open the windows? way in which the production & reception of a given text depends
Declaratives, the words change the world. Naming ships, sentencing, marriages. I declare you husband & wife. upon the other texts.
Now let’s concentrate on cohesion & coherence:
2. COHESION or capacity to organise and structure utterances to facilitate interpretation by means of 3. DEIXIS
endophora and exophoras (references to linguistic & situational contexts), repetitions, ellipsis... the way in The reference we have seen in the cohesion concept was a textual reference. Now we are
which the components of a text are connected within a sequence. Cohesion is the network of lexical, going to concentrate on situational reference or DEIXIS
grammatical & other relations that provide links between the different parts of a text. These relations organise The term 'deixis', refers to a particular way in which the interpretation of certain linguistic
a text by requiring the reader to interpret words & expressions by reference to other words & expressions. It expressions (deictics or indexical) is dependent on the context in which they are produced
is obvious that the selection of the word apples has no cohesive force by itself; a cohesive relation is set up or interpreted. Moreover, deixis contributes to cohesive purposes by means of deictics such
only if the same word or a word related to it such as fruit, has occurred previously. It is less obvious, but as pronouns and determiners.
equally true, that the word them has no cohesive force either unless there is some explicit reference for it Person deixis: the traditional grammatical category of person involves the most basic deictic
within reach. In both instances, the cohesion lies in the relation that it is set up between the two. Halliday notions. First person, for example, encodes the participation of the speaker, and temporal
& Hassan established 5 cohesion categories: and spatial deixis are organized primarily around the location of the speaker at the time of
• Reference, referring expressions are words whose meaning can only be discovered by referring to other speaking.
words in the text. Can be classified into ANAPHORA: naming an element already said back in the sentence: Time deixis: the deictic centre is normally taken to be the speaker's location at the time of
Marta Is my sister, she is a teacher. The 2 sentences are linked by the pronoun ‘she’ which refers anaphorically the utterance. Therefore, now means some span of time including the moment of utterance,
to the noun ‘Marta’. CATAPHORA: reference to an element which is going to appear forwards in a sentence: and one reckons ten years ago by counting backwards from the year including the speaking
There he is, John Milton. The 2 sentences are linked by the pronoun ‘he’ which refers cataphatically to the time. Tense is another aspect of temporal deixis, an obligatory deictic category for nearly all
noun ‘John Milton’ sentences in English.
• Substitution, when we write an element instead of another. My axe is blunt, I have to get a sharper one. Space deixis: deictic adverbs like here and there are perhaps the most direct examples of
The relation is established by the presence of the substitute ‘one’ of the second sentence which is referring spatial deixis. As a first approximation, here refers to a more remote region from the speaker.
to the noun ‘axe’ in the first sentence. The demonstrative pronouns this and that.
• Ellipsis, the omission of an element. Did you see John? – Yes…the cohesive relation is achieved by the Discourse deixis: in a spoken or written discourse, there is frequently occasion to refer to
omission of some elements in the second sentence that presupposes the 1st sentence. Yes, I saw John. earlier or forthcoming segments of the discourse (as in the previous / next paragraph, or
• Conjunction, CONNECTORS the relation is achieved by the use of words or clauses to join the sentences. have you heard this joke?). Since a discourse unfolds in time, it is natural to use temporal
John likes apples and bananas. deictic terms (like next), but spatial terms are also often employed, as in in this chapter.
- Opposition (or, on the other hand, however, conversely) and clarification (for instance, thus, in other
words). CONCLUSION: It is important to highlight the idea that learning a second language is
- Addition (and, furthermore, moreover) and variation (anyway, well, to sum up, by the way). learning the practical usage of it, for that reason, this topic is very important as it gives the
- Temporal (formerly, then, firstly, next...) or causal-conditional (so, consequently, because, as a result...). students the use of the textuality aspects to have an effective communicative competence.
• Lexical cohesion, the main cohesion category. Halliday & Hassan present this example:
a) The boy is going to fall if he doesn’t take care. BIBLIOGRAPHY:
b) The lad is going to fall if he doesn’t take care.
c) the child is going to fall if he doesn’t take care. • Beaugrande, R. and Dressler, W. Introduction to Text Linguistics. London,
d) the idiot is going to fall if he doesn’t take care. Longman.1988.
There is a repetition, a synonym, a superordinate term (child), a general word (idiot) all of these terms have
in common the fact that one lexical item refers back to another related to a common referent. As teachers, • Trudgill, P. Sociolinguistics: An introduction to Language and Society.
London. Penguin. 2001.
we need to sensitize students to the choice between referring expressions, repetition and elegant repetition,
depending on the type of discourse. • www.britannica.com
COHERENCE or ability to organise our messages in a logical and comprehensible way to transmit meaning. • The Oxford English Dictionary
It what makes the text semantically meaningful. The way in which the components of a text are relevant.
Cohesion & coherence are connected to each other. In the case of cohesion, the connection is by lexical &
grammatical dependencies. In the case of coherence, the connection is by conceptual or meaning
dependencies. We will assume that cohesion is a property of the text & that coherence is a facet of the reader’s
evaluation of a text. In other words, cohesion is objective, coherence is subjective & it may vary from reader
to reader. Example of a highly cohesive text which is nevertheless incoherent: A week has seven days. Every
day I feed my cat. Cats have 4 legs.
We cannot make sense of these sentences. What actually gives texture is not the presence of cohesive markers
but our ability to recognise semantic relations which establish continuity of sense.
For any text or discourse to be coherent, it must make sense, have a unity and be well-formed. Coherence
has been seen as one of the prime conditions or characteristics of a text: without coherence, a text is not
properly a text. Written texts most obviously illustrate coherence, but even conversation has coherence in
the sense that each utterance is expected to be relevant and communication clear. By what Grice calls the
'co-operative principle', speakers work tacitly together to achieve a norm of coherent and effective
exchanges, and by what he calls the 'maxims of relation' and of 'manner' hearers expect relevance and
clarity. Even when at first hearing there is no obvious relevance it is inferred, and because everyone does
this, exchanges are made economical. So, if speaker A says 'Can you come to the theatre on Monday?' and
speaker B says 'there's a match on T.V.', speaker A will see this as a negative response. What is implied, by
speaker B is something like 'No, I can't come to the theatre because...’